20th Century genocide and mass atrocities

8 Stages of Genocide

Classification, Symbolization, Dehumanization, Organization, Polarization, Preparation, Extermination, Denial

Armenian Genocide

• 1915: Ottoman leaders gathered and executed Armenian leaders

• Blamed for failed state of ottoman empire

• Men were killed, women and children forced to flee on deadly marches

• 1.5 million dead, 150,000 remained

• Turkish government made discussing it a criminal offense

• US recognized it in 2019

Rape of Nanking

• Mass murder and rape done by Imperial Japanese troops against Nanjing residents

• Brutal murders, rapes, and mutiliation

• Comfort Women

• 20 million killed

Holocaust

• Under Hitler and Nazi rule, the attempted extermination of Jewish people in Germany and German lands

• Hitler believed Aryans were the superior race and that Jews were trying to destroy them

• Nazis developed final solution to get rid of Jews and other inferior people

• Over 6 million killed (90% of Polish Jews)

• 12,000,000+ deaths

USSR Gulag

• Gulag was system of forced labor camps established during Joseph Stalin’s long reign as Soviet Union dictator

• 18,000,000 people passed through

• 2-6 million deaths

The Holodomor

• man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 that killed 4 million

• Stalin wanted to replace Ukraine’s small farms with state-run collective and punish independence minded Ukrainians who threatened his totalitarian authority

Cambodian Genocide

• Pol Pot (leader of Khmer Rouge) massacred millions of Cambodians to make Cambodia an agrarian state again

• People targeted who posed a threat to Pol Pot and communist government

• Intellectuals, literates, and glasses were targeted

Rwandan Genocide

• Majority of Hutus massacred minority Tutsis

• 100 days saw murder of 800,000 Tutsis, which is 75% of their population